DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 16 ) The Queen, composed of different stuff, Above all things adored her snuff ; Save gold, which, in her great opinion, Alone could rival snuff’s dominion.’ In the meantime, in 1770, Lord North had become Prime Minister of England. Considering the disastrous results of his policy, I may be excused for devoting a few remarks to his person. Coarse, clumsy, and ungracious in appearance ; with large, prominent eyes, that kept rolling about aimlessly ; a wide mouth, thick lips, and an inflated visage, he was said to resemble ‘a blind trumpeter.’ But he redeemed the ungainliness of his person by great power of speech, remarkable wit, and extra- ordinary evenness of temper. On one occasion a Member of the House of Commons contemptuously alluded to him as ‘That thing called a Minister.’ ‘Well,’ he retorted, ‘to be sure I am a thing, and I can’t be angry with the hon. member—for “that thing called a Minister” is of all things what he wishes most to be.’ That same equanimity which he displayed in politics also distinguished his private life. ‘I never,’ writes his daughter, Lady Sarah Lindsay, ‘saw my father really out of humour. He had a drunken, stupid groom, who used to provoke him, and who from this uncommon circumstance was called by the children ‘“‘ The man who puts papa in a